Edited by Kosha Anja Joubert and Robin Alfred

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Beyond You and Me is the first volume in the Four Keys to Sustainable Communities series and is a practical anthology for anyone seeking to rebuild existing fragmented villages and communities, establish new group enterprises and ecovillages, and heal the wounds of conflict and social division. It is for those seeking to live cooperatively and in peace with fellow human beings and the Earth.

Since the beginning of human history, we have lived in communities. That is, however, until the mid-twentieth century, when cheap fossil-fuel energy has enabled many of us in industrialized countries to live more socially dispersed and isolated lives. But now, escalating climate change, peak oil, and the need to radically reduce our carbon consumption dictate that this unsustainable way of life cannot continue. We must relearn the art of community building and conflict resolution.

Beyond You and Me offers skills in communication, conflict resolution, leadership, facilitation, and consensus decision making, and an inspiring perspective on solving global problems. Written by an international group of social and ecological pioneers, it includes the voices of Marshall B. Rosenberg, Wangaari Maathai, Starhawk, Azriel Cohen, Hildur Jackson, and Helena Norberg-Hodge.

The Four Keys represent the four dimensions of sustainable design—the Worldview, the Social, the Ecological, and the Economic. This series is endorsed by UNESCO and is an official contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The other books of the series are Gaian Economics, Designing Ecological Habitats, and The Song of the Earth. The Four Keys to Sustainable Communities series was completed in 2012 and is now available in the U.S. for the first time.

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One-Straw Revolutionary represents the first commentary on the work of the late Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka (1913 – 2008), widely considered to be natural farming’s most influential practitioner. Mr. Fukuoka is perhaps most known for his bestselling book The One-Straw Revolution (1978), a manifesto on the importance of no-till agriculture, which was at the time of publication a radical challenge to the global systems that supply the world’s food, and still inspires readers today. Larry Korn, who apprenticed with Mr. Fukuoka in Japan at the time, translated the manuscript and brought it to the United States, knowing it would change the conversation about food forever. The One-Straw Revolution, edited by Korn and Wendell Berry, was an immediate international success, and established Mr. Fukuoka as a leading voice in the fight against conventional industrial agriculture. In this new book, through his own personal narrative, Larry Korn distills his experience of more than thirty-five years of study with Mr. Fukuoka, living and working on his farm on Shikoku Island, and traveling with Mr. Fukuoka to the United States on two six-week visits.

One-Straw Revolutionary is the first book to look deeply at natural farming and intimately discuss the philosophy and work of Mr. Fukuoka. In addition to giving his personal thoughts about natural farming, Korn broadens the discussion by pointing out natural farming’s kinship with the ways of indigenous cultures and traditional Japanese farming. At the same time, he clearly distinguishes natural farming from other forms of agriculture, including scientific and organic agriculture and permaculture. Korn also clarifies commonly held misconceptions about natural farming in ways Western readers can readily understand. And he explains how natural farming can be used practically in areas other than agriculture, including personal growth and development.

The book follows the author on his travels from one back-to-the-land commune to another in the countryside of 1970s Japan, a journey that eventually led him to Mr. Fukuoka’s natural farm. Korn’s description of his time there, as well as traveling with Mr. Fukuoka during his visits to the United States, offers a rare, inside look at Mr. Fukuoka’s life. Readers will delight in this personal insight into one of the world’s leading agricultural thinkers.

Sacred Earth Celebrations is the revised and updated version of Glennie Kindred’s bestselling, classic book, Sacred Celebrations. It is an uplifting and inspiring source book for everyone seeking to celebrate and honor the changing rhythms and seasons of the Earth and her cycles. Uplifting and inspiring, it explores the eight Celtic festivals, how they were celebrated and understood in the past, the underlying changing energy of the Earth, and the ways we may use this energy to create meaningful celebrations for today to deepen our connection to the Earth and our fellow human beings.

Glennie offers a vibrant, contemporary approach and encourages us, whether celebrating on our own or with family and friends, to follow our own inspired interpretations of each festival. She helps us touch the sacred, share and participate in the power of nature, express our feelings, and find ways to focus on spiritual regeneration and healing.

Sacred Earth Celebrations deepens our understanding of the five elements, the laws of manifestation, the rhythms of the Moon, Earth energies and sacred landscape, inner journeying, and meditation. It explores ways to create sacred space both inside and outside, celebrations for children, crafts, the use of song and dance, garden and land projects, building a sweat lodge and labyrinths, and many other creative activities to help us connect to the moment, to the Earth, and to each other.

"Now what am I going to do?" is a question many people ask—and leave unanswered—at critical potential turning points in their careers.

Perhaps you’re a new graduate, but instead of lining up for a boring entry-level job at a big corporation, you wish you could start your own sustainable and responsible business. Or maybe you’ve been stuck in a job you hate for a few years, but you still dream of doing the thing you love and that you’re actually good at. Or maybe you’re a boomer and you’re ready for a second career, a personal venture that will represent a total change from what you’ve spent most of your work life doing.

Whatever your situation, this is the book to help you get started. Finding the Sweet Spot explains how sustainable, responsible, and joyful natural enterprises differ from most jobs, and it provides the framework for building your own natural enterprise. You’ll learn how to find partners who will help make your venture successful, how to do world-class market research, how to innovate, how to build resilience into your enterprise, and how to avoid the land mines that sink so many small businesses. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to find the "sweet spot" where your gifts, your passions, and your purpose intersect.

And make no mistake: our world needs your talent. The current economic system and the educational system that feeds into it have let us down and are destroying our planet. We need a blossoming of natural enterprises—connected, collaborating, and supporting ventures—to form a dynamic new natural economy.

Is such a thing possible? Inventor, entrepreneur, and humanist Buckminster Fuller said: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Finding the Sweet Spot presents a new model. Use it to find the work you were meant to do, thereby helping to create the world we’re meant to live—and make a living—in.

In essence, the great work we face requires rekindling the home fires.Radical Homemakers is about men and women across the U.S. who focus on home and hearth as a political and ecological act, and who have centered their lives around family and community for personal fulfillment and cultural change. It explores what domesticity looks like in an era that has benefited from feminism, where domination and oppression are cast aside and where the choice to stay home is no longer equated with mind-numbing drudgery, economic insecurity, or relentless servitude.

Radical Homemakers nationwide speak about empowerment, transformation, happiness, and casting aside the pressures of a consumer culture to live in a world where money loses its power to relationships, independent thought, and creativity. If you ever considered quitting a job to plant tomatoes, read to a child, pursue creative work, can green beans and heal the planet, this is your book.